Oscar De La Hoya will use holidays to “reflect”
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Oscar De La Hoya will be in Los Angeles ‘for another day’ before returning to his Puerto Rico home, said Richard Schaefer, the boxer’s friend and business partner. Schaefer said De La Hoya will use the holidays to start determining his future plans following Saturday’s one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao.
‘We have to respect the fact that he’s been fighting since he’s been age 5, this is not something he’s done only for money,’ Schaefer said. ‘He has a deep, deep passion for boxing and to suppose that you can just let it go after a fight. That’s not something he’s prepared to say right now, that, ‘I’m retired.’
‘It’s a process. He has to go through that process with his family and when he’s ready, we’ll announce a press conference for him to say what he wants.’
De La Hoya’s loss continues to elicit opinions from the boxing world.
Pomona’s ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley, who fights for De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, said he didn’t think the 35-year-old’s loss reflected a shot fighter.
‘That wasn’t age, it was something he did in training,’ Mosley said. ‘He could only gain two pounds after the weigh-in. He couldn’t get his stuff back.... He was just weak. There’s a difference between being slow and being weak. He was a sitting duck. I think it was more about how he prepared. He knows what went wrong.’
Former multi-division world champion James Toney, 40, who is completing preparations for his Saturday heavyweight fight against Fres Oquendo at Morongo Casino in Cabazon, said De La Hoya must come back and fight. Toney, by the way, has been in more than 80 pro fights.
‘Oscar’s a good fighter, but he’s fought too many times to be fighting a guy like Manny Pacquiao,’ Toney said. ‘Ending it like he did, sitting on the stool, he better come back and redeem himself. He looked like a little sissy. I’ve been beat up. I never quit.
‘The Mexican fans who haven’t liked him should love him now because he did what their favorite Roberto Duran did 26 years ago: ‘No mas.’ Oscar can’t do that, or he’s going to go down as a quitter.’
-- Lance Pugmire
